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Matthew Josephson
Matthew Josephson (February 15, 1899 - March 13, 1978) was an American poet and journalist, the author of works on 19th-century French literature and 20th-century American economic history. Life Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Josephson graduated from Columbia University and married Hannah Geffen in 1920. They lived in Europe in the 1920s. Initially Josephson wrote poetry, published in Galimathias (1923), and reported for various "little magazines." He became associate editor of Broom, 1922-1924, and contributing editor of Transition, 1928-1929. Josephson was also a regular contributor to The New Republic, The Nation,'' The New Yorker, and the ''Saturday Evening Post. Josephson's earliest biographies were Zola and His Time (1928) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1932). Influenced by Charles A. Beard and the Depression, and with only one major exception, Stendhal: or the Pursuit of Happiness (1946), Josephson changed his focus of interest from literature to economic history when he published The Robber Barons in 1934. This was followed by more full-length works in which Josephson served as a spokesman for intellectuals of his generation who were dissatisfied with the social and political status quo. Josephson wrote 2 memoirs, Life Among the Surrealists (1962) and Infidel in the Temple (1967). In 1978, he died in Santa Cruz, California. He was 79. Josephson's collected papers are in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Hannah Josephson, librarian of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an author in her own right, worked closely with her husband on various projects throughout their careers. In 1945 she and Malcolm Cowley edited Aragon, Poet of the Resistance. Matthew and Hannah Josephson collaborated on Al Smith: Hero of the Cities in 1969. They had two sons, Eric and Carl. Quotations Josephson is credited with popularizing the term "robber baron" in his 1934 book, The Robber Barons. Publications Poetry *''Galimathias. New York: Broom, 1923. Non-fiction *''Zola and His Time: The history of his martial career in letters, with an account of his circle of friends, his remarkable enemies, cyclopean labors, public campaigns, trials, and ultimate glorification. New York: Macaulay, 1928. *''Portrait of the Artist as American''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1930. *''Jean-Jacques Rousseau''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1931. *''Nazi Culture: The brown darkness over Germany''. New York: John Day, 1933. *''The Robber Barons: The great American capitalists, 1861-1901''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1934. *''The Politicos, 1865-1896. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1938. *''The President Makers: The culture of politics and leadership in an age of enlightenment, 1896-1919. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1940. *''Victor Hugo: A realistic biography of the great romantic''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1942. *''Empire of the Air: Juan Trippe and the struggle for World Airways''. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943. *''Stendhal; or, The pursuit of happiness''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1946. *''Sidney Hillman: Statesman of American labor''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1952. *''Union House Union Bar: The history of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, AFL-CIO''. New York: Random House, 1956. *''The Big Guns: A powerful expose of the rising power of the Pentagon in today's America''. *''Edison: A biography''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. *''Life Among the Surrealists: A memoir''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1962. *''Infidel in the Temple: A memoir of the 1930s''. New York: Knopf, 1967. *''Al Smith: Hero of the cities; a political portrait drawing on the papers of Frances Perkins'' (with Hannah Josephson). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969. *''The Money Lords: The great finance capitalists, 1925-1950''. New York: Weybright & Talley, 1972. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Matthew Josephson, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 13, 2014. References * David E. Shi, Matthew Josephson: Bourgeois Bohemian. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981. Notes External links ;Poems *"The Last Lady" in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922 ;Prose *Matthew Josephson in Virginia Quarterly Review ;Books *Matthew Josephson at Amazon.com ;About *Matthew Josephson in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Josephson, Matthew at the Jewish Virtual Library *Matthew Josephson at NNDB *Matthew Josephson at the Internet Movie Database Category:1899 births Category:1978 deaths Category:American journalists Category:American poets Category:American biographers Category:American memoirists Category:American historians Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:Historians of the United States Category:Columbia University alumni Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Modernist poets